Italian bishop tells priests not to let Muslims pray in churches

ROME (RNS) An Italian bishop has clashed with a pair of priests who want to invite Muslims to pray inside their churches in a bid to promote tolerance in a diocese in Tuscany.

“The deserved, necessary and respectful welcome of people who practice other faiths and religions does not mean offering them space for prayers inside churches designed for liturgy and the gathering of Christian communities,” Bishop Fausto Tardelli of Pistoia said in a statement reported on Saturday (March 19).

“They can very well find other spaces and places,” Tardelli said.

The bishop was responding to pledges by two local priests, the Rev. Massimo Biancalani and the Rev. Alessandro Carmignani, to welcome 18 Muslim refugees by giving them space to pray inside their churches.

But the two priests told Italian media they intend to defy the bishop and host the refugees in three parishes in the diocese, which is 25 miles northwest of Florence.

“What is the problem?” said Biancalani who runs the parish of Vicofaro. “If we want to give them a proper welcome and integration it makes no sense to make them pray in a cellar.

“Whoever wants to can pray inside the church, whoever does not want to can do it in another space. They don’t need much; the important thing is that they can face Mecca.”

The two priests contend they are responding to appeals by Pope Francis to help immigrants seeking support and they think praying together is a good way to enable their congregations to get to know the immigrants.

About the author

Josephine McKenna

Josephine McKenna has more than 30 years' experience in print, broadcast and interactive media. Based in Rome since 2007, she covered the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and election of Pope Francis and canonizations of their predecessors. Now she covers all things Vatican for RNS.

12 Comments

Go a head and let them pray in your church, then in a couple of months ask if the will allow the same type of prayer service in the mosque? Therein we will get a better feel of what tolerance means to either group.

The pope is sponsoring only two refugee families, despite an April 2015 article in Il Sole 24 Ore stating the Vatican’s assets – securities, commercial real estate and bank accounts – for all its departments and offices combined “by a conservative estimate” would be around 15-17 billion euro.

An ironic metaphor Daniel, being that an Arab Muslim is designated as the person in charge of the keys to that church because the various Christian denominations haven’t been able to get along there for centuries.

To truly understand this issue, it has to be placed in the context of current and historic European fears of an Islamic conquest. Those fears have been accentuated during the current refugee crisis. Churches have been turned into mosques in many places in the world in the past, often forcibly. The adaptive reuse of disused churches is continuing in Europe today, although now it’s a more peacable real estate process.
In light of this history, it would be useful to know whether the local priests are proposing that Muslims be allowed to hold prayer services in the nave or main part of the church, or just that they be allowed to use the all-purpose room or something.

Well, Garson Abuita, for the sake of truth – historical, religious and economic truth – the issue of those keys is much, much more complex and intricate than it appears… It looks like some ad hoc guide put forward that motive in order to impress the tourists.
Happy Easter.